Exclusive report into Navy radiation exposure reaches Obama cabinet officials

CLEVELAND - Two top level cabinet officials in the Obama administration have been asked to review an exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation into possible radiation exposure among Navy personnel.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who serves on the Senate Committee for Veterans Affairs, is sending letters to both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki asking to investigate veterans' cancer claims.

The exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation raised serious questions involving a "portable" nuclear plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica where Navy personnel served during the 1960s and 70s.

The plant was shut down in 1972 and dismantled.

But our investigation reviewed the Navy's final operating report that revealed a history of malfunctions -- 438 over the plant's operating period from 1964 to 1972.

Veterans who served there have long suspected their cancers were related to possible radiation exposure, although the final report concluded that levels were not excessive.

"When your station is exposing these things where veterans are put in a position where maybe they should not have been put and wind up developing diseases like cancer, your expose and our efforts together can get to the bottom of it and see exactly what happened and take action accordingly, said Brown.

"That's why I am asking Secretaries Gates and Shinseki  to fix this any way we can."